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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It's the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – can observe the Sun when it reaches the peak of its solar cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately once every 11 years as the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It's a time marked by intense activity. It sees the Sun changing from calm to stormy and features a significant rise in the frequency of solar eruptions and massive solar flares – enormous clouds of plasma that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME may have a mass of billions of tons and reach a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can travel toward various directions, even toward our planet. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to traverse the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or low-activity times, our star launches two to three CMEs a day," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, it's anticipated them to be 10 or more each day."

Studying coronal mass ejections ranks among the most important research goals for the Indian maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities occurring on the Sun endanger systems on our planet and in space.

Effects on Earth and Orbital Systems

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect life on Earth through generating magnetic disturbances affecting conditions in Earth's vicinity, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, including Indian satellites, are stationed.

"The most spectacular manifestations of a CME are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from Sun journey toward our planet," the expert explains.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, disable electrical networks and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Events

• The strongest solar event ever recorded was the Carrington Event that disabled communication systems worldwide
• During 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and some other European air hubs
• In February 2022, an ejection caused dozens of spacecraft being lost

If we are able to observe what happens on the Sun's corona and spot solar activity or solar eruption as it happens, measure its heat at the source and track its trajectory, this serves as a forewarning to switch off electrical systems and spacecraft and move them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Unique Advantage

There are other solar missions observing the Sun, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals when it comes to watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," notes the researcher.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface to let researchers constantly study the dim solar atmosphere – something natural eclipses provide only during specific moments.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study solar events in visible light, enabling it to determine a CME's temperature and heat energy – key clues indicating the intensity of an eruption when traveling our direction.

Preparation for Maximum Activity

To prepare for next year's peak solar activity period, researchers worked together to study information gathered from one of the largest solar eruption recorded by the mission has recorded until now.

It originated in September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, its temperature reached extreme levels and the energy content comparable to millions of tons of explosives – in comparison nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Although these figures make it sound massive, the scientist describes it as a moderate event.

The space rock which wiped out prehistoric life on Earth was 100 million megatons and when the Sun's maximum activity cycle, we could see eruptions carrying power equal to even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what to expect during solar maximum arrives," he says.

"The learnings from this will assist in work out the countermeasures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help achieving deeper knowledge of near-Earth space," he concludes.